La Habanera is a 1937 German romantic melodrama feature film directed by Detlef Sierck (later known as Douglas Sirk).

Zarah Leander, who was signed by UFA in the previous year, stars in the lead role of Astrée Sternhjelm and also performs its title song, "La Habanera".

[1] In 1927, Swedish tourists Astrée Sternhjelm and her elderly aunt Ana are nearing the end of a visit to Puerto Rico.

Don Pedro invites the women to a bullfight, where he heroically jumps into the ring after the matador is injured, and kills the bull himself.

Ten years later, in 1937, in Stockholm, Dr. Sven Nagel, a former lover of Astrée's, and his associate, Dr. Gomez, bid her Aunt Ana farewell.

Nagel and Gomez arrive, but their presence unnerves Don Pedro and his associates, who fear the focus on the Puerto Rico fever will ruin their business.

The Doctors, receiving no local support, conduct their investigation on their own, in secret, doing lab tests illegally in their hotel room.

However, he learns that all his medical supplies, including the antidote, were destroyed on Don Pedro's direct orders, during the raid on the hotel room.

This was the only film for the child actor Michael Schulz-Dornburg who played Juan; at the end of WWII, he was drafted and died at the age of 17 near Berlin in 1945.

The island appears to be run by selfish, authoritarian and corrupt local businessmen and landowners, and the movie is critical of the United States as the responsible party.

[4] The film can also be seen as critical of Nazi Germany: a dictator imperils his own people, is hostile towards foreigners, and has a secret he wishes to hide (the plague = concentration camps).